Two EF3 tracks within ten miles, an airport-measured 105 mph gust, and four thousand homes whose first roof is now past due. Midlothian is a wind town, and we build for it.
There is an intersection on the north side of Midlothian — Highway 67 and 9th Street — that has, in the space of seven years, been the site of the best-documented giant hail in the city’s record and the starting point of its costliest tornado. On June 13, 2012 a baseball-sized stone, 2.75 inches, was measured there. On October 20, 2019 an EF1 tornado touched down at that same intersection and tracked 2.8 miles east. We are not being dramatic; both are in the National Weather Service record, and you can check them. If you live near that corner, you already knew.
Midlothian’s storm profile is different from most of the Metroplex, and getting it right matters for how you insure and how you build. The hail record is moderate — 61 distinct hail days within ten miles since 2000, roughly half what northeast Tarrant County logs. The tornado record is not moderate at all. Nineteen tracks within ten miles, and two of them rated EF3.
The worst was December 26, 2015. The NWS survey put it plainly: “Sixty-seven single family homes were affected, with 23 of these being completely destroyed.” Forty-six people were injured. As that tornado was forming, the automated weather station at Mid-Way Regional Airport recorded a 105 mph gust — an instrument reading, not an estimate, and the strongest properly measured wind in this part of Ellis County. That same evening, the same weather system produced the EF4 that tore through Garland and Rowlett. Our shop is in Garland. We worked both ends of that outbreak.
The October 2019 tornado is the more instructive one for roofs. It was only an EF1, and it still did $10 million in damage. The survey describes “several church and retail buildings” with blown-out windows and roof damage, one building at Lighthouse Church losing a wall and “much of the roof,” sheet metal peeled off two buildings east of Highway 67 and metal roof purlins bent. Winds of 100 to 110 mph. An EF1 is the kind of storm a well-built roof survives and a marginal one does not, which is exactly the distinction we care about.
Midlothian is not an old-roof town. The median home here was built in 2007 and 71% of the housing stock went up in 2000 or later — the newest of any city we serve at this distance, with the highest median value at $411,800 and the lowest vacancy. What it has instead is a very large, very identifiable first-replacement wave. The 4,127 homes built between 2000 and 2009 are seventeen to twenty-six years old now. Their original builder-grade roofs are at or past the end of a normal service life, and most of them were standing through both the 2015 EF3 and the 2019 EF1. That is the conversation we have here most often: not a worn-out roof, but a fifteen-year-old roof that has taken two significant storms and is quietly done.
The city itself sits on the Austin Escarpment, a chalk ridge the city describes as a “600-year potential limestone reserve” — which is why three cement plants and a steel mini-mill ended up here rather than somewhere else, and why Gerdau Ameristeel employs around a thousand people inside the city limits. Useful context for a roofer: a lot of Midlothian works shifts, and we schedule around that rather than assuming everyone is home at two in the afternoon.
Repairs, replacements, installations, and inspections for homeowners. Class 4 impact-resistant shingles, metal, tile, slate.
View Residential Roofing →TPO, EPDM, modified bitumen, and metal systems for businesses and property managers. Maintenance plans available.
View Commercial Roofing →Emergency and scheduled repairs. Hail damage, leaks, flashing, and storm response with 1-year workmanship warranty.
View Roof Repair →Full tear-off and replacement with manufacturer warranties up to 50 years. Flexible financing available.
View Roof Replacement →Honest, no-pressure assessments for storm damage, pre-sale, and annual maintenance — written report included.
View Free Roof Inspection →Residential maintenance plans from $24.99/month. Annual inspection, priority scheduling, 10% repair discount.
View Roof Maintenance →Ordinance 2025-39, effective July 8, 2025, adopted the 2021 IRC with the NCTCOG regional amendments. Those amendments touch exactly one section of the roofing chapter: R902.1, which makes Class A, B or C fire-rated roofing mandatory on every dwelling in the city rather than only near lot lines. R905 and R908 are untouched, so the plain 2021 IRC re-roofing rules govern layers and tear-off with no local variation. If a competitor tells you Midlothian has a special layer rule, they have not read the ordinance.
Section 8.03.007 makes it a violation to operate a “pneumatic hammer” or similar equipment between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. A roofing nail gun is squarely a pneumatic hammer. Midlothian is one of the few cities around here with a hard clock rather than a vague nuisance standard, and we work to it.
The adopted Table R301.2(1) for Midlothian fills in ice barrier underlayment as NOT required, with a 22°F winter design temperature and moderate weathering. If you have been reading national roofing advice about ice-and-water shield at the eaves, that is why your Texas estimate does not include it. We would rather explain the code than quietly add a line you do not need.
Don't see your question? Call us at (469) 936-7663 — we're happy to talk it through.
Yes. The city lists ROOFING by name among the projects requiring a building permit, with no square-footage or scope threshold published, so it reads as applying to any roofing work. Permits and inspections run out of 215 N. 8th Street; the inspection request line is 972-775-7166. We pull it as part of the job.
$50.00 for a new roof or re-roof, per the city’s Master Fee Schedule, authorized by Resolution 2019-01. Residential rooftop solar is a separate $250 line. If work begins without a permit, the fee schedule doubles the permit cost, and Ordinance 2025-39 allows a fine of up to $2,000 with each day treated as a separate offense.
Yes, and it is free. The city states that “contractors must be registered with the City in order to obtain a permit; there is no fee to register,” and its form carries a ROOFER category. Registration requires a driver’s license, appropriate state licensing and a certificate of insurance. Midlothian does not publish a minimum insurance dollar amount, so if that matters to you, ask your contractor to show you the certificate itself rather than relying on the city’s threshold. Worth adding: Texas does not license roofing contractors at the state level, so nobody has a state roofing license to produce.
Midlothian follows the 2021 International Residential Code on this without any local change. Section R908.3 governs when a re-cover is allowed and when a complete tear-off is required, and the city’s adopted amendments do not modify it. The one roofing amendment Midlothian does adopt is R902.1, which requires Class A, B or C fire-rated roofing on every dwelling in the city — the only exception being small detached sheds and playhouses.
Midlothian’s adopted design wind speed is 115 mph as a 3-second gust, and the city is not in a windborne debris zone. That number drives fastening pattern and shingle wind rating. Given that an EF1 tornado produced 100 to 110 mph winds inside the city in 2019 and the airport measured a 105 mph gust in 2015, the design figure is not theoretical here.
Not before 7:00 a.m., because Section 8.03.007 of the city code makes running a pneumatic hammer before that hour a violation. In practice we stage materials early and start nailing at seven. On a full tear-off and re-roof in summer we would rather have the early hours than the late ones anyway.
Honestly, more tornado than hail relative to the rest of DFW. Sixty-one hail days within ten miles since 2000 is moderate by Metroplex standards. Nineteen tornado tracks within ten miles, including two EF3s, is not. The December 26, 2015 EF3 destroyed twenty-three homes outright and injured forty-six people. That shapes what we recommend: wind-rated shingles and correct fastening matter more here than impact rating alone.
We do. Midlothian’s residential service is contracted to Waste Connections with one bulk item a week, which is not a realistic route for a tear-off. Unlike some neighboring cities, Midlothian does not publish a construction-debris exclusion or a roll-off permit requirement that we could verify, so we will not claim one exists — we simply handle disposal ourselves and it is in the price.
Probably close, and the storm history is the reason rather than the calendar alone. A 2005 builder-grade roof in Midlothian has now sat through the 2012 baseball hail, the 2015 EF3 outbreak and the 2019 in-town EF1. Twenty-year shingles that have taken that much are often functionally finished before they look finished from the ground. The 4,127 homes built here between 2000 and 2009 are all in the same position. We will get on it, photograph what we find and tell you if you have a season or two left — that answer is free and it is sometimes the answer.
Same storm system, same evening. On December 26, 2015 an EF3 tracked from near Mid-Way Regional Airport to the Ellis County line and on into Dallas County, affecting sixty-seven single-family homes and completely destroying twenty-three of them. That same outbreak produced the EF4 that hit Garland and Rowlett. Our shop is in Garland. We worked both ends of that night, which is a large part of why we understand what a genuine wind-damage claim looks like versus what a door-knocker will tell you one looks like.
Call us at (469) 936-7663, or request your free estimate online — most inspections are scheduled within 24–48 hours.
(469) 936-7663